Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Robert Heard <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>]

Dave Washburn wrote:
>A good trick, since there was no temple in Ezekiel's day as far as we 
know.

Dave, the vision in question--from Ezekiel 8 and the following 
chapters--is dated to the sixth year of King Jehoiachin's (and 
Ezekiel's) "exile" in Babylon, or approximately 592/591 BCE. There 
certainly was a temple standing in Jerusalem at that point.

Now, having said that, I should add that I regard Ezekiel's visionary 
report in Ezekiel 8--the idolatry and such that he sees--as a 
_composite_ sketch of what has been going on in that temple for some 
time. Even so, the book clearly charges the temple administrators with 
allowing the depiction of theriomorphic gods in private rooms within.

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I left my signature in my other e-mail client.

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R. Christopher Heard
Assistant Professor of Religion
Pepperdine University
Malibu, CA 90263-4352
http://www.heardworld.com
http://www.iTanakh.org